Study of Responses to the Census 2000 Race Question Instruction: "Mark One or More Races" and Bridging to Single Race Distributions

• Activity Number: 63
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 12, 2002 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics*
• Author(s): David Hubble*+ and James Poyer+ and Michael Bentley
• Affiliation(s): U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Race Distributions ; Census 2000 ; Bridging Methods

Abstract

Historically, data by race from most federal and non-federal censuses and surveys reflect a collection methodology of asking respondents to mark only one race category. In 1997, OMB issued revised standards for the collection of data on race by federal agencies. The implementation of the standards began with Census 2000, including instructions to "Mark one or more races." For many data users, there is a need to understand how the Census 2000 race distribution relates to race distributions from previous censuses, current surveys, and administrative records, where respondents were instructed to report only one race. The objective of the study is to produce a datafile that will improve users' ability to make comparisons between Census 2000 data on race and data on race from other sources that reflect only a single race. The appropriate method to "bridge" from the Census 2000 "multiple race" to a specific "single race" distribution is likely to depend on the collection procedures associated with the single race data. The study design, methods employed in collecting both multiple race and single race data, alternative bridging methods, and preliminary results will be presented.